Assassin’s Creed IV, the next – gen sequel to Assassin’s Creed III, is an open-world action-adventure game released by Ubisoft on 29th October, 2013. The game is centered on Edward Kenway, the father of Haythem Kenway and the grandfather of Ratohnhaketon a.k.a Connor (characters of Assassin’s Creed III), enhancing the story in-depth to Kenway bloodline. Unlike other games in the series, players no longer take the place of Desmond Miles in the present era. The historical part of the main story takes place in the early 18th century, spanning the Caribbean locations, which is rather a prequel to the historical background of Assassin’s Creed III. This game gained widespread critical acclaim and bagged the “Best Action-Adventure Game” in the Spike VGX 2013 along with many other achievements. The game is the first in the series where the players witness a pirate like experience especially in the naval based exploration with stunning gameplay features.

Plot

The plot of Assassin’s Creed IV is mainly emphasized on the Kenway generation focusing on the life of pirate-cum-assassin, Edward Kenway during the early part of 18th century. Due to the death of modern storyline protagonist Desmond Miles in Assassin’s Creed III, players take the possession of an employee of Abstergo Entertainment Inc. who is assigned to research the historical background of Edward in order to gain the existence of the ‘Observatory’ and its whereabouts.

In the historical storyline, Edward is initially mentioned to be a drunken privateer fantasizing about his dreams to become a pirate and explore the world of riches. On his journey, ‘Captain Edward Kenway’, is caught in between the turmoil of the Assassins and Templars later realizing the truth about the ‘Observatory’ and its consequences by falling into wrong hands.

In the modern storyline, players assist the Abstergo Inc. / Templars by collecting data about the Observatory but are later contacted secretly by the Assassins within their quest to help them fight against the selfish and dangerous cause of the Templars.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Assassin’s Creed IV introduces unique features to naval-explorations and battles. The camera is based on a third person view. The map is very large, as compared to that of Assassin’s Creed III, featuring the geographic locations of the Caribbean comprising of three major cities (Havana, Nassau and Kingston) along with many islands and mysterious places. The game’s land based explorations, melee and combat exhibit the same gameplay features as that of its predecessors.

The players take the control of the ship, “Jackdaw”, as its captain. They have the ability to upgrade the ship’s infrastructure like appearances, weapons, etc. and also recruit crew members. The addition of spy glass is a notable feature that can be used to determine treasures and different types of animals available for hunting present in an island. It can also be used to study the aspects of enemy ships like strength, resources available, etc. Enemy ships can either be abducted or looted if players emerge victorious in fighting against them. Players will also be able to harpoon whales via on boat expeditions. Enemy naval forts can be acquired by naval conquests and killing its respective commander in order to eliminate the threat of remaining in enemy territories and reveal new hidden locations. Valuable resources present in warehouses owned by merchants can be stolen to assist the Jackdaw in many ways. Players can also dive underwater by the help of diving bell so that they can collect treasures and many useful items.

Armors and necessary upgrades can be crafted for Kenway, if necessary resources are available via an ‘upgrade and crafting screen menu.

While in the present day scenario, players will be able to hack into various systems to gain information about the secrets of Abstergo.

Amlan a.k.a 'Hackassin' is an avid tech and gaming enthusiast who is a content writer at Tech Legends. You would often find him hooked to his PC playing RPG games mostly. Apart from that, currently he is working in Accenture and likes to watch snakes in his dreams.